Dupree’s perfect-o highlights Senior Sox’ sweep
EDITOR’S NOTE: In this time of COVID-19, with no sports action, BryantDaily.com will be posting past stories of Bryant athletics either posted on BryantDaily.com (from 2009 to the present) or published in the Bryant Times (from 1998 to 2008).
Devin Dupree’s senior season for the Bryant Hornets couldn’t have been any better, team-wise. The Hornets captured the Class 7A State championship and finished 33-2.
Individually, however, it wasn’t what he no doubt had hoped for. High School teams often only need two or three, maybe four pitchers, especially at the end. The Hornets had 12 quality pitchers including Dupree and only used two in the State tournament. (Blaine Knight and Zach Jackson didn’t allow a single run in three games, by the way).
Dupree threw 12 1/3 innings for the varsity, the sixth most out of the 12 and nearly the same as Blake Patterson (13) and Harrison Dale (15 1/3), fourth and fifth, respectively. He only allowed two runs, one earned, posting an 0.57 earned run average on a staff with a remarkable composite ERA of 0.79.
So it was certainly with a great deal of satisfaction that, on Wednesday, in his first appearance on the mound for the Bryant Black Sox Senior American Legion team, the right-hander fired a five-inning perfect game against the Little Rock Vipers. The Sox’ Zone 4 rivals were retired 15 up and 15 down by Dupree and a stellar defensive effort that included three eye-popping plays by shortstop Trevor Ezell — capped by a game-ending snag of a looping liner in short left field — as well as tough plays by second baseman Korey Thompson and first baseman Blake Patterson.
Dupree’s gem came in Bryant’s 10-0 win in the first game of a doubleheader. The Sox won the second game, 13-6, after Justin Emmerling continued the perfection through the first three innings of the nightcap.
Bryant improved to 8-0 on the season and 3-0 in league play going into a tournament at Jonesboro.
Dupree struck out just one and only had three three-ball counts in Wednesday’s opener.
“I watched his reaction there at the end and it meant a lot to him,” acknowledged Sox manager Darren Hurt. “He just came back from vacation and didn’t throw much at the end of high school. He threw yesterday and felt good so we told him he had the ball first game and we needed him to extend. I knew he’d go out and throw well but I didn’t expect to get that. That was a pleasant surprise.”
Hurt acknowledged that, in Legion, you can never have too much pitching. For one thing, post-season play involves double-elimination tournaments and nine-inning games.
“I’m working up to 11 now,” Hurt said of his pitchers. “I like the way the staff is coming together. Here in a few weeks, we’ll figure out who’s going to be the starters and who’s going to be bullpen guys but I think we’ll have a lot of arms we can throw.
We’re going to Omaha (June 19-21) and hopefully we’re going to play eight games. We may throw them all.”
Not only did Dupree and Emmerling get some work but so did Austin Caldwell. Plus, Trey Breeding, the starting catcher on the Hornets’ team, tried out the other end of the battery and showed promise in the second game.
“That was what the second game was going to be,” Hurt noted. “We were going to throw Em and he did such a good job and his pitch count stayed so low, we thought we could get more than we expected. We were only going to throw him two or three innings.”
Emmerling, who threw just four varsity innings as a senior this spring, pitched into the fourth. He hit Little Rock lead-off man Lance Nolen with a 3-2 pitch to lead off the fourth providing the Vipers with their first base-runner of the night — in the ninth inning of the night.
Three of the next four batters reached for Little Rock, which wound up scoring its first two runs of the night, before Breeding came on and ended the uprising.
The Sox had built a 9-0 lead through the first three innings. They wound up with 10 hits to go with the eight from the first game.
Drew Tipton was 4-for-4 between the two contests, was on base all seven times he came to the plate, stole five bags, scored six runs and drove in four. Patterson went 3-for-4 in the two games and was on base in six of the seven times he came up. He scored three times and knocked in four.
In the opener, the Sox gave Dupree all the runs he’d need in the first inning when Tipton singled, stole second and, after Hayden Lessenberry walked, led a double-steal that drew a wild throw to third, allowing him to score.
Vipers’ right-hander Alex Stilwell (Little Rock Central, Drury College) kept it 1-0 until the bottom of the third. He walked Thompson and his teammates played I-got-it, you-take-it on Trevor Ezell’s fly into shallow left, allowing it to fall for a single. A walk to Tipton loaded the bases.
Stilwell got Chase Tucker to bounce to third for a force at home. The pitcher did a good job of robbing Hayden Lessenberry of a hit but could only get the out at first as Ezell scored. Patterson followed with a drive to right for a two-run single.
Tucker beat the throw to the plate and when Vipers catcher Colin Carrone didn’t retrieve the loose ball off the throw immediately, Patterson hustled to second. Three pitches later, Dalton Holt singled him home to make it 5-0.
Ezell, who made his first defensive gem in the second, made another in the top of the fourth when Vipers’ lead-off man J.T. Thompson hit a chopper to the left side. Brandan Warner had to charge and veer to his left in hopes of making a short-hop play. But the ball skipped by him. Ezell, though, ranged into the hole behind Warner, made the play and fired to just nip Thompson at first.
Dupree eased through the rest of the inning and the Sox went back to work in the bottom of the fourth. Caldwell was hit by a pitch and Korey Thompson sacrificed him to second. Ezell beat out an infield hit on a grounder into the hole. Trying to catch Caldwell off second, Nolen threw behind him only to have his throw sail into right field. Caldwell raced home and Ezell wound up at third.
Tipton’s RBI single made it 7-0. He stole second as Tucker walked and Stilwell was pulled with lefty Blake Burgess taking the bump.
Lessenberry grounded into a force at second as Tipton took third then Patterson laced an RBI double inside the bag at first.
A passed ball allowed Lessenberry to score and a wild pitch opened the door for Patterson to make it 10-0 as Holt drew a walk.
All that was left was for Dupree to retire the side in the top of the fifth, which he did on just eight pitches.
In the second game, Emmerling retired the first nine Vipers on just 25 pitches. He fanned two and retired four batters on comebackers.
The Sox piled up their 9-0 lead with three in the first, four in the second and two more in the third. Ezell, Tipton and Tucker opened the home first with consecutive singles. Each stole a base along the way. Tipton drove in Ezell then scored on Lessenberry’s grounder to the right side. Patterson singled in Tucker.
In the second, C.J. Phillips laced a single to left and advanced on a wild pitch by Vipers starter Tanner Wagner. Harrison Dale beat out an infield hit despite the ball hitting Phillips. The grounder, however, had already been tipped by Peyton White, the Little Rock third baseman.
Korey Thompson pushed a bunt to the right side for an RBI single. And when Wagner’s ill-fated shovel throw to first was not only too late but off target, Dale made it to third and Thompson to second.
A wild pitch allowed Dale to score then, with one out, Tipton drilled an RBI double to the gap in right-center to make it 6-0. Tucker followed with a slow roller to the right side that J.T. Thompson ranged far to his left to get to. He threw to first just in time to nip the speedy Tucker but to the Vipers’ surprise, Tipton, who got a great jump off second, never stopped and slid home. He’d scored from second on a groundout.
Shepard relieved in the third and hit Patterson. Warner cracked a liner to center for a single but, with one out, Dale’s comebacker resulted in a force at third. With runners at the corners, Thompson hit a hard grounder to Nolen at short. The ball came up on him but he stayed with it and tried to get a force at second. But Dale had been off on the pitch, going hard all the way, slid in to second ahead of the throw.
With the bags juiced, Ezell walked to force in a run and Tipton was struck by a pitch to bring home another.
Shepard settled in after that and retired seven of the next eight batters.
“We got really comfortable,” Hurt commented. “We got caught up in some things other than the game and it took us a little while to get focused back up. We can’t do that. We’ve seen that in years past, also. You just kind of take somebody for granted and think nine’s enough and here they come.”
After Nolen became the Vipers’ first base-runner of the night to start the fourth, Shepard walked. Both moved up on a grounder to first. That’s when Stilwell hit a sharp grounder to the right of second. Korey Thompson nearly got to it but it went off the tip of his glove and into center for the first Little Rock hit of the night. Nolen scored.
A walk to Burgess resulted in Breeding’s entrance. He struck out Braylon Mays but an 0-1 breaking pitch hit JoJo Johnson, forcing in a second run.
A sparkling play behind second by Thompson resulted in a force to end the inning moments later.
In the fifth, Breeding struck out the first two he faced but hit Shepard and Seth Campbell — the later with a 2-2 pitch. He got two strikes on Stilwell but his third pitch was yanked into left for another RBI single, making it 9-3. Another nice play by Ezell produced the third out.
“Trey was a pleasant surprise,” Hurt mentioned. “I liked what I saw. He had a really good off-speed pitch there that nobody else throws, a lot of downward movement. I think he can be effective for us.”
Caldwell took over in the sixth and retired the first two around a single by Johnson. Cole Weber walked then Nolen was nicked by a pitch to load the bases for Shepard who drilled a two-run single to left to make it 9-5.
A walk to Campbell loaded the bases once more but Caldwell fanned Stilwell to end the uprising.
Tipton walked to lead off the bottom of the sixth. Burgess returned to the mound for Little Rock and, after a wild pitch and a balk, Tipton was at third. With one out, Lessenberry swatted a double to right to drive him home.
With the help of three walked, four wild pitches and an error, Bryant tacked on three more to make it 13-5 going into the seventh.
The Vipers used a one-out error and singles by Johnson, Weber and Nolen to add on a run before Caldwell got Shepard to fly out to Patterson in right to end the game.
“When we work ahead in the count and don’t give up freebies with a hit batter or a walk then we’ll be fine,” Hurt noted.
The Sox open play in Jonesboro on Saturday at 4 p.m. They’re tentatively scheduled to play a team based in Hernando, Miss., followed at 6:30 against a team based in Commerce, Texas.
BLACK SOX 10-13, VIPERS 0-6
Senior American Legion
Game one
Little Rock ab r h bi Bryant ab r h bi
J.Thompson, 2b 2 0 0 0 Ezell, ss 3 2 2 0
Wagner, cf 2 0 0 0 Tipton, cf 2 3 2 1
Carrone, c 2 0 0 0 Tucker, dh 2 1 0 0
Stilwell, p 1 0 0 0 Lessenberry, c 2 1 0 1
Burgess, p 1 0 0 0 Patterson, 1b 3 2 2 3
White, 3b 2 0 0 0 Holt, rf 2 0 2 1
Shepard, 1b 2 0 0 0 Warner, 3b 3 0 0 0
Weber, rf 1 0 0 0 Caldwell, lf 1 1 0 0
Dunn, lf 1 0 0 0 K.Thompson, 2b 0 0 0 0
Nolen, ss 1 0 0 0 Dupree, p 0 0 0 0
Totals 15 0 0 0 Totals 18 10 8 6
Little Rock 000 00 — 0
Bryant 104 5x — 10
E—Carrone 2, Nolen. LOB—Little Rock 0, Bryant 3. S—K.Thompson. SB—Tipton 3, Lessenberry.
Pitching ip r er h bb so
Little Rock
Stilwell (L) 3.1 8 4 3 4 1
Burgess 0.2 2 1 1 0 0
Bryant
Dupree (W) 5 0 0 0 0 1
HBP—Caldwell (by Burgess). WP—Burgess. PB—Carrone.
Game two
Little Rock ab r h bi Bryant ab r h bi
Nolen, ss 3 1 1 0 Ezell, ss 3 1 1 1
Wagner, p 1 0 0 0 Tipton, cf 2 3 2 3
Shepard, p-1b 2 2 1 2 Tucker, dh 4 1 1 1
J.Thompson, 2b 1 0 0 0 Lessenberry, 1b 4 1 1 2
Campbell, 2b 1 0 0 0 Holt, 1b 0 0 0 0
White, 3b 1 0 0 0 Patterson, rf 1 1 1 1
Stilwell, 3b 3 0 2 2 Warner, 3b 3 2 1 0
Burgess, 1b-p 3 0 0 0 Phillips, c 4 1 1 1
Mays, cf 4 1 0 0 Dale, lf 3 2 1 0
Carrone, c 1 0 0 0 K.Thompson, 2b 4 1 1 1
Johnson, c 2 1 2 1 Emmerling, p 0 0 0 0
Dunn, lf 4 0 0 0 Breeding, p 0 0 0 0
Moore, rf 1 0 0 0 Caldwell, p 0 0 0 0
Weber, rf 2 1 1 1
Totals 29 6 7 6 Totals 28 13 10 10
Little Rock 000 212 1 — 6
Bryant 342 004 x — 13
E—Wagner, Nolen, Holt. DP—Little Rock 1. LOB—Little Rock 11, Bryant 5. 2B—Tipton. SB—Shepard, Ezell, Tipton 2, Tucker.
Pitching ip r er h bb so
Little Rock
Wagner (L) 2 7 6 8 0 1
Shepard 3 3 3 1 2 1
Burgess 1 3 2 1 3 1
Bryant
Emmerling 3.1 2 2 1 2 2
Breeding (W) 1.2 1 1 1 0 3
Caldwell 2 3 2 5 2 2
Balk—Burgess. HBP—Patterson, Tipton (by Shepard), Nolen (by Emmerling), Johnson, Shepard, Campbell (by Breeding), Nolen (by Caldwell). WP—Wagner 2, Burgess 4, Caldwell.
